Celeste Taylor, LI Lutheran refocus quickly to roll past Brooklyn Nazareth
Celeste Taylor #12 of Long Island Lutheran pulls up for a jumper during a non-league girls basketball game against Nazareth at Long Island Lutheran High School in Brookville on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. Lutheran won by a score of 81-58. Credit: James Escher
Long Island Lutheran girls basketball coach Rich Slater didn’t waste any time in calling his first timeout of the game just over 90 seconds into Tuesday night’s contest.
Already trailing by five points, the Crusaders couldn’t sort out their defensive assignments or offensive flow. In Slater’s opinion, the energy was lacking.
The players got the message.
Celeste Taylor (19 points, six rebounds, five assists) spearheaded the charge, as the Crusaders bounced back to beat visiting Brooklyn Nazareth, 81-58. After falling behind 10-2 on Jhakia Gist’s three-pointer, LuHi outscored Nazareth, 44-13, the rest of the first half.
“We didn’t come out like we wanted or like we usually do,” said Taylor, who last week was one of 24 girls from across the country invited to participate in the McDonald’s All-American Game on March 28. “We had a rough time pushing the ball, stopping the ball, stopping the threes. We talked about them being shooters, and we didn’t really get a high hand.”
LuHi put distance between itself and Nazareth (3-17) in the second quarter. With LuHi ahead 23-18 at the start of the period, Taylor and Sydney Rosenoff each scored four points in a 12-0 spurt for a 35-18 lead. Tamia Lawhorne then had five points in an 11-0 run later in the quarter, as LuHi (11-6) went into halftime with a 46-23 lead.
“I just have to group them up sometimes and tell them, ‘We’re better than this,’ ” Taylor said.
This Crusaders team is strikingly different from recent years, as an infusion of youth has both the present and future looking bright. Freshmen guards Paris Clark (13 points, eight rebounds) and Chardonnay Hartley start in the backcourt, while eighth-grade center Aalyah Del Rosario comes off the bench and dominates the paint at 6-5.
Rosenoff, a sophomore, and Emma Von Essen, a freshman, also play big minutes.
“We can start off slow, but at the end of the day, we’re always going to find a way to get our momentum back and play how we know we can play,” Clark said.
Couple that youth with three seniors going Division I — Taylor (Texas), Lawhorne (George Mason) and Emma Glezen (Loyola-Maryland) — and LuHi has high hopes.
